Anyone here own a manufactured home?

I've lived in South Florida all my life. There are many mobile home and manufactured home communities. I've had several friends and some family that lived in some.
In Florida, if you are looking for long term durability and maintaining value, CBS-Concrete Block and Steel is the best to have. Stick built construction will not hold up to the weather (humidity and storms winds) and wildlife (bugs and termites).
If you are looking for short term durability and plan to leave for storms, and want high finishes for a cost savings, then manufactured can work. Just make sure that it is exceptionally well sealed to keep insects out.
 
Bought a brand new doublewide 20 x 40 back in the 80's in California in the city and lived in it for 10 years in a beautiful family park with clubhouse and two pools and mostly great neighbors and park management. Far nicer than any apartment in the area and we were happy there until the kids came along. Payment was low but space rent very high which was a huge problem when we tried to sell. We then bought a big fancy house and commuted 70 miles to work each way, I did it for 30 years till I retired and my ex is still commuting about 45 miles daily. Now I'm considering selling the huge home while the market is high and possibly moving into a rental mobile home in a senior park until the market drops or I find my forever single story home. I know I could be very happy back in a mobile home rather than an apartment which I don't fancy at all. Reselling is probably the only thing I would suggest that you look into to but in Florida, it's probably not an issue.
 
The discussion here is all about the construction of the dwelling. But the OP may need to learn about the ownership model of the community (or communities) in question. Does one purchase the real estate in this community? Or lease it?
 
The discussion here is all about the construction of the dwelling. But the OP may need to learn about the ownership model of the community (or communities) in question. Does one purchase the real estate in this community? Or lease it?

Yes one would imagine a purchase would be site specific.

It often possible to buy an on-site used unit.


For example we bought a 12 by 50 park trailer with large loft and deck. It was in place on a family run small resort at a world class lake up North..we pay 2400 a year which includes sewer, water, road maintenance, trash disposal and lot mowing. Certainly a good value even though the resort is only open from April till late October.
 
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The development our friends are in definitely isn't what most would think of as a trailer park. It looks and feels like any other housing development. The homes are spaced out on the streets. They all have concrete driveways and there are sidewalks. The homes all have covered car ports and screened in lanais. It all looks very permanent, definitely not like something anyone would hitch a truck to and pull it away.

It sounds like the community my aunt lives in (but in Arizona). She owns her lot (land). She pays an HOA that covers the pools/club house, etc. My husband, who was an architect, likes her house because it's built to withstand road travel - therefore it can handle the vibration/forces of seismic, windstorms, etc...

Her community is interesting - it's mostly snowbirds from the upper midwest with some Canadians tossed in. Only about 15% of the owners are year round residents. The variety of style in the homes is interesting - including one that looks like an adobe. Some look more trailer like, but most look like stick built (albeit 100% single story). Because the lots are a decent size (5000sf minimum) there is a lot of personalization in the yards.
 
In our park, we pay space rent. In some parks you also own the land.
Interestingly enough, California has enacted a "Mobile Home ownership program" where we purchase the park and have long term low interes loans to buy the space. It is still in process.
 
In our park, we pay space rent. In some parks you also own the land.
Interestingly enough, California has enacted a "Mobile Home ownership program" where we purchase the park and have long term low interes loans to buy the space. It is still in process.
Don't know if this still applies in California or not but back in the 90's no property taxes pn Mobile homes even though they were permanent. We paid a fee to the DMV and got a vehicle registration sticker which had to be posted on a back corner. It was less that $100 a year, I'm guessing that my state has since figured out a way to get a lot more money from residents.
Regarding the ownership program, I think the reason for that was developers were trying to buy up the land and toss out the residents so they could build new homes. I remember a lot of news stories and protests regarding that a few years back.
 
Don't know if this still applies in California or not but back in the 90's no property taxes pn Mobile homes even though they were permanent. We paid a fee to the DMV and got a vehicle registration sticker which had to be posted on a back corner. It was less that $100 a year, I'm guessing that my state has since figured out a way to get a lot more money from residents.
Regarding the ownership program, I think the reason for that was developers were trying to buy up the land and toss out the residents so they could build new homes. I remember a lot of news stories and protests regarding that a few years back.


That changed in CA some time ago. We now pay property tax. Fortunately, DW was able to carry her old assessment to our new home. Our property tax is less than $400.
 
For those of you who own mobile homes--are you concerned about wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes? Whenever we have a wind storm or tornado where I live it seems that mobile home parks are the ones with the most damage to property and people.
 
For those of you who own mobile homes--are you concerned about wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes? Whenever we have a wind storm or tornado where I live it seems that mobile home parks are the ones with the most damage to property and people.


It depends on where you live. We are on the West Coast and only have to worry about earthquakes and fires, which are rare Being in Florida or in Tornado Alley is a whole different thing.
 
I live in Iowa and previously in Nebraska. They are built to a wind resistance standard that varies based on where it will be sited. So, to that extent that aren't exactly all the same. In 2008 there was a sudden wind storm that came out of nowhere where I lived in Omaha. Winds exceeded 110 mph along with hail. That's wind speed in excess of the first two tornado categories.

Other than roof shingle and vinyl siding damage, which would have happened to any house as these are not unique to mobile homes, there were few mobile homes in my park that sustained any damage to the house itself. And they were very old houses. 1960's/early 70's vintage. And most of the damage was actually caused by flying construction debris crashing into houses from a work site just across the street .
 
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We've owned 4 mobile homes over the past 20 years and currently live in a small 55+ park in Tucson. Our first mobile was in Boulder, Colorado - a very expensive place where mobile homes are the only halfway affordable housing option. The problem in places like that is that space rents keep going up and there's always a good possibility the park owners will sell the place out from under you. John Oliver did a good exposé on this awhile back (you can find the clip on YouTube).

Putting either a mobile or modular on land you own is one way around that but what we prefer are what are called Resident Owned Communities (ROC's) or Co-op Mobile home parks in which residents own the land and run the community. We have several of these here in Tucson. So for example instead of paying ~$45K for a late-model mobile in a corporately-owned park and paying $500-700 a month in space rent with regular increases you pay ~$145 for the same home in a co-op park and the sales price includes shares of land in the community - while your at-cost (for roads, maintenance, clubhouse, pool, some insurance) monthly community fee is in the $150 range.

As others have said, it's the community that really determines your satisfaction with this kind of living. We refer to our place here as being "blue-collar co-housing" because there are so many informal get-togethers, from TED talks nights to hikes to BBQ meals in the Ramada, yet we have a lot of privacy, great mountain views, hiking trails out our door and an 8 minute drive to downtown - with 40K tied up in our home and $500 a month in space rent and property taxes of $108 a year. An equivalent lifestyle in a stick-built home here would required tying up 300K plus in a home (and paying cash these days of COVID real estate panic) and if we did that we'd not only have little money left over for travel and fun but would also be socially isolated with none of the amenities we enjoy.
 
Manufactured homes are very popular in rural areas of Arizona and they had a very poor reputation for a long time but it seems to have improved some recently although I still see a big difference in resale values between an equivalent sized site built and manufactured home. The big problem in the past is that the buyer was responsible for prepping the site but there were no permits/inspections required to ensure it was done properly, the sellers only responsibility was to deliver the home. In many cases the prep work wasn't adequate and problems would start appearing in a couple years after settling took place. My understanding is that changes were made a few years ago now requiring special permits and inspections on the site prep but I would be very leery of buying a manufactured home that was in place prior to that.
 
For those of you who own mobile homes--are you concerned about wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes? Whenever we have a wind storm or tornado where I live it seems that mobile home parks are the ones with the most damage to property and people.

Our house is tied down to the concrete footings with steel straps. It is no more or less susceptible to high winds than a built in place home, and was built according to national codes. As I noted before, it is superior to a traditional home in terms of earthquake resistance.
 
Our house is tied down to the concrete footings with steel straps. It is no more or less susceptible to high winds than a built in place home, and was built according to national codes. As I noted before, it is superior to a traditional home in terms of earthquake resistance.
If done properly I agree with that. As I mentioned in post 11 of this thread, we had hurricane straps added to the build process when ours was being built at the factory.... IIRC, the home was designed to withstand sustained 90mph winds in the base case and with the extra hurricane straps, who knows.... When it was delivered to our country site, it was placed on a concrete slab... I had them add some extra tie downs that were anchored through the slab.... All of that extra stuff is dirt cheap, when done while initially building it or setting it up. I felt just as comfortable and safe in that mobile home as any "regular" house I've owned.

While we owned it, I don't think we ever saw winds much over 60mph so it was never really tested.
 
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I'm down in the big trees so it would get clubbed by them long before the wind could directly damage it. It is the most typical weather damage on the west side of the mountains. Nothing escapes the 2' fir trees!
 
We always thought that Mobile Homes, we a depreciating asset. They certainly are here in our part of Florida. Is it the same for a well built modular home? Not a rolled in Mobile, but built on site with pre-built panels. I have watched many HGTV type shows where Log homes were basically modular, a kit that is delivered then erected on site. They could be considered modular and do not appear to be a depreciating asset. What about Tiny homes, they are certainly modular, but like Mobile homes are mostly one module.
 
<looks at tax statement> Nope, we did title elimination on our manufactured home and it goes up up up.
We were into this place for 82K in 1995, built a ~15K garage and carport in 2003, and currently valued at ~350K.
1300 sq ft
There is a 2300 sq ft traditional house down the street listed for 675K. I doubt it was purchased for 82 + 15K, and no, it is not moving. They will have to drop the price <flippers>.
Just for giggles I looked it up.
Originally sold for 160K as new in 1997 roughly double our first home, before I built the garage.
Picked up by flippers in May for 485
failing the flip for a 190K flip after renovations.
 
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For those of you who own mobile homes--are you concerned about wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes? Whenever we have a wind storm or tornado where I live it seems that mobile home parks are the ones with the most damage to property and people.


I've lived through and seen the wind damage from a bunch of hurricanes and I've also seen the damage caused by a few tornadoes that have passed close by. While a direct hit from a Cat 3 hurricane can cause some widespread damage, a direct hit from a F3 tornado is unbelievably devastating... (Yes I know the wind speeds and effects are different) but I've seen both so they aren't "that" rare.

We had a F3 tornado pass by about 20 miles from us a couple of years ago...Everything in it's path was gone/destroyed. Trees, houses, mobile homes, cars, everything... Looked like a bull dozer came though and just piled everything up. I took this picture the day after the F3 pass by.


The only good thing about tornados (if you can call anything about them as good) is they are usually pretty short in duration and damage is limited to their direct paths... But unlike hurricanes, you don't get much (if any) notice that they are coming.
 

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Depends on what jargon you're using. I've always taken "manufactured housing" to mean essentially a house trailer. Now that can be a single-wide, a double-wide, or even a triple-wide. And it can be be put on a permanent foundation, or even have a roof with a slight pitch to it. But if it came in on its own frame and own set of wheels, and could also be put up on cinder blocks, then it's a "manufactured home".

I've heard the phrase "Mobile Home" came into common usage because one of the earliest manufacturers of them was located near Mobile Alabama. And in later years people thought of "Mobile" as in, a trailer you can move about as you please, although these things are really only designed to be moved once, towed by a heavy-duty truck, and then blocked and skirted, either in a trailer park or private lot. They're really not sturdy enough to be moved about regularly, though.

"Modular Home" on the other hand, is what I've taken to mean a home that is built in sections, in a factory, and then brought out and set into place on a permanent foundation. They can be split foyer, split level, two story, or a Cape Cod, any design, actually. And once put together and finished off, they don't look any different from a stick-built home.

My Mom and stepdad live in a modular home. It's a rather modest 24x48 rancher, built in 1979. The only tip-off that it's a modular home is on the inside. The bearing-wall that runs down the center is extra thick, because each side of the 12x48' sections was designed to be self-supporting. The roof was also site-built, and separate, whereas on a manufactured/mobile home, the ones that have a slight roof pitch have the roof actually built into the structure, I believe, and then when the two pieces are joined together on the side, the top layer of shingles/ridge vent, etc are installed to finish it off.

Most manufactured/Mobile homes, even the nicer ones, always give themselves away to me, because the outer walls are usually only 7'6" tall, rather than your typical 8', or more. The inner walls are usually thinner as well. And often, rather than having what I'd call a "fully-finished" wall (drywalled, spackled, and painted), they just have these 4x8 panels that have thin strips at the seams, sort of like an RV.

I'm not trying to rag on manufactured/Mobile homes, though. I've seen some of them that are actually quite nice. I have some relatives that have owned them, and as far as I know, never had problems with them

I do remember one issue that my cousins had, though. They had bought a large parcel of land in Southern Maryland, on a fairly new street, and wanted to put in a manufactured home. I think it was built by Fleetwood, and 28x76 feet. Some of the neighbors, who had already had stick-built houses put in, did raise a fuss, although I don't think there was any kind of HOA they could have griped to. But, my cousins were able to get it put on the land, anyway, and apparently once it was finished, the neighbors chilled out.
 
I would like to make a distinction. The old single wide "tin can" mobile homes are being phased out in favor of manufactured homes. These are stick built at a factory and joined together on site.
I have attached a photo of ours.
That's what they look like in my DD's development. Put on a lot (small yard, just length + 10' / 25' wide side yards / enough space on other side that she added a 3rd bedroom), plus community pool / basketball courts. I always thought it was trailer parks but it's not.
 
Most manufactured/Mobile homes, even the nicer ones, always give themselves away to me, because the outer walls are usually only 7'6" tall, rather than your typical 8', or more. The inner walls are usually thinner as well. And often, rather than having what I'd call a "fully-finished" wall (drywalled, spackled, and painted), they just have these 4x8 panels that have thin strips at the seams, sort of like an RV.
Yes, some of the homes I've looked at do have those wall panels, but others specifically advertise that they have drywall throughout. I'm assuming that's an upgrade done after the fact though. They probably came with the panels.
 
The wife and I had a premanufactured home built on our property 2 years ago. The 2 halves of the house were built in an Ohio factory using mass production processes. Floors and walls, including electrical, pex plumbing, sinks, toilets, were built on horizontal surfaces. No drywall nails were used, just some "liquid nail" adhesive was used. The house is very tight and energy efficient. Separate items, like basement steps and wall studs, front and back porches we're stick built after the house was set.
The only problem we had, and it was a strange one, was that all the light and fan switches were failing mechanically. The company replaced them all. It seemed that some shifting occurred during transport and caused them all to bind up. For the new switches installed, mounting holes were drilled out so the switches could float better in the switch boxes.
The picture below is the first half being lowered on the foundation. Note gap between house and foundation.
 

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Call it what you will, my parents lived in a double-wide mobile home in central FL. It came to the lot on wheels. It was placed on concrete blocks and had foundation skirts on a rural 7 acre plot. It was a very nice place when they bought it. During their 25+ years living there though, it didn't fare very well. The quality/durability over time was sub-par. But they got what they paid for and that worked for them.

I'm sure that over the last 40 years construction methods and materials have changed. I would still need a lot of convincing to buy a similar one.
 
Call it what you will, my parents lived in a double-wide mobile home in central FL. It came to the lot on wheels. It was placed on concrete blocks and had foundation skirts on a rural 7 acre plot. It was a very nice place when they bought it. During their 25+ years living there though, it didn't fare very well. The quality/durability over time was sub-par. But they got what they paid for and that worked for them.

I'm sure that over the last 40 years construction methods and materials have changed. I would still need a lot of convincing to buy a similar one.

We don't want to convince you......name me something that hasn't changed in the last 40 years.
 
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